Quality of Life in Europe: Conceptual approaches and empirical definitions

This report is one of the outputs resulting from Workpackage 4, "Social and professional integration" of the WALQING project, SSH-CT-2009-244597 (www.walqing.eu).

Quality, information and certification

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study issues in Corporate Finance and Industrial Organization related to the behavior of markets with asymmetric information. The first two chapters study the economics of credit rating agencies; the third chapter examines a process of social learning about product quality. Chapter 1 models the effect of rating agency competition on the quality of rated securities. I compare equilibria across a regime of competition between two rating agencies and a monopolistic regime. In both regimes, all available agencies are hired in equilibrium, so under competition more ratings are observed. However, competing agencies do not fully internalize the return of a reputation for being honest. Whenever strategic agencies are not very concerned about their reputation, competition can induce more issuer effort than monopoly. Otherwise, a monopolistic agency induces more effort. Chapter 2 analyzes the effect of the Cuomo Plan, a much-discussed regulation that prohibits issuers of residential mortgage-backed securities from making payments to rating agencies contingent on the assigned ratings. I construct a certification model which consists of the following features: (i) an issuer privately informed about her security's quality can hire a rating agency to assign a rating; (ii) the agency can observe, at a cost, a private signal correlated with the quality of the security; (iii) an undeserved favorable rating reduces the agency's future revenues. I show that the Plan has an effect on the informative content of the rating only if the agency's signal is not too costly. In this case, the Plan ensures that the rating is more informative; otherwise the Plan has no effect. In chapter 3, I study the pricing strategy of a monopolistic firm in a market characterized by consumers with heterogeneous preferences and private information about the product quality. Consumers purchase sequentially and observe the history of purchasing decisions, prices, and consumers' preferences. I characterize the conditions under which the monopolist gains when consumers learn the true quality, and, which pricing strategy ensures that learning takes place

The ongoing fight against tax avoidance in the perspective of the EU legal system: from ATAD I to the proposal for an "Unshell Directive"

openThe purpose of the thesis is to go deep into the EU anti-tax avoidance legislation's formation process, from ATAD I to the proposal for ATAD III. The first chapter provides an overview of EU tax avoidance situation, highlighting the huge problem of the tax compliance gap, its implications, and the future steps in the EU Agenda to oppose the problem. In the second chapter is presented an historical excursus of EUCJ case law, starting from the concept of abus de droit, passing through the introduction of the first anti-avoidance measures in the directives and ending with an explanation of the main measures introduced by ATAD I and II. This chapter faces up also the concept of shell entity. Then, are identified the main indicators that could be implemented to quantify the number of existent letterbox companies, and the countries in which the phenomenon is more widespread. Furthermore, it is provided an analysis of the red flags that commonly characterized no-substance entities. Lastly, some MNEs' tax schemes are investigated as real examples of aggressive tax planning accomplished with the establishment of shell entities in European Tax Heaven. The third chapter introduces the scope and the contents of Unshell Directive proposal, going deep into substance test’s steps, and sharing experts’ opinions and doubts. Moreover, are analysed the reactions and the possible future impact of ATAD III in Luxembourg and Netherlands. To conclude, are provided some insights and final observations.The purpose of the thesis is to go deep into the EU anti-tax avoidance legislation's formation process, from ATAD I to the proposal for ATAD III. The first chapter provides an overview of EU tax avoidance situation, highlighting the huge problem of the tax compliance gap, its implications, and the future steps in the EU Agenda to oppose the problem. In the second chapter is presented an historical excursus of EUCJ case law, starting from the concept of abus de droit, passing through the introduction of the first anti-avoidance measures in the directives and ending with an explanation of the main measures introduced by ATAD I and II. This chapter faces up also the concept of shell entity. Then, are identified the main indicators that could be implemented to quantify the number of existent letterbox companies, and the countries in which the phenomenon is more widespread. Furthermore, it is provided an analysis of the red flags that commonly characterized no-substance entities. Lastly, some MNEs' tax schemes are investigated as real examples of aggressive tax planning accomplished with the establishment of shell entities in European Tax Heaven. The third chapter introduces the scope and the contents of Unshell Directive proposal, going deep into substance test’s steps, and sharing experts’ opinions and doubts. Moreover, are analysed the reactions and the possible future impact of ATAD III in Luxembourg and Netherlands. To conclude, are provided some insights and final observations

Quality of Life in Europe: Empirical evidence

This report is one of the outputs resulting from Workpackage 4, "Social and professional integration" of the WALQING project, SSH-CT-2009-244597 (www.walqing.eu).

Frequent Audits and Honest Audits

A regulator hires an auditor to inspect a firm. Audits serve two purposes: to detectviolations and to motivate the firm to invest in compliance. Auditor and firm can colludeto hide violations. Honest audits require sufficient monetary incentives for the auditor,and more frequent audits call for larger incentives. We link the optimal audit frequencyto the budget constraint faced by the regulator, and to the firm’s bargaining powerin the collusive agreement. We show that (i) the optimal audit frequency need notbe monotonic in the regulator’s budget size, (ii) tolerating collusion can foster ex-anteinvestment, and (iii) a regulator that enjoys more flexibility in designing the auditor’scompensation scheme might be less willing to deter corruption

Dynamic Persuasion with Outside Information

A principal seeks to persuade an agent to accept an offer of uncertain value before a deadline expires. The principal can generate information, but exerts no control over exogenous outside information. The combined effect of the deadline and outside information creates incentives for the principal to keep uncertainty high in the first periods so as to persuade the agent close to the deadline. We characterize the equilibrium, compare it to the single-player decision problem in which exogenous outside information is the agent's only source of information, and examine the welfare implications of our analysis

Dynamic persuasion with outside information

A principal seeks to persuade an agent to accept an offer of uncertain value before a deadline expires. The principal can generate information, but exerts no control over exogenous outside information. The combined effect of the deadline and outside information creates incentives for the principal to keep uncertainty high in the first periods so as to persuade the agent close to the deadline. We characterize the equilibrium, compare it to the single-player decision problem in which exogenous outside information is the agent's only source of information, and examine the welfare implications of our analysis

O PÓS-POSITIVISMO NO SISTEMA PENAL E A PROTAGONISTA VONTADE DO JUIZ NA DEFESA DOS DIREITOS FUNDAMENTAIS

O texto tem o objetivo de revelar a força normativa dos princípios por meio dos mecanismos do Estado Democrático de Direito e a pertinente afirmação do pós-positivismo para a mitigação do sistema penal com a formação da norma constitucional para o caso concreto com a responsável atuação do juiz criminal em conformidade com a Constituição da República

Transizione duttile-fragile in un acciaio duplex SAF2205

Analisi della transizione duttile fragile valutata nel SAF2205 quando vi siano presenti percentuali di intermetallici inferiori all'1%. I risultati sono comparati con il materiale allo stato di fornitura, in particolare sono stati studiati l'andamento delle curve di transizione, l'espansione laterale e l'area di frattura, valutando l'infragilimento con la temperatura.ope